After being rapped by the civil aviation ministry for not reducing base fares despite unbundling services like check-in baggage and pre-booking of seats, domestic airlines have followed the ministry?s directives and slashed base fares.
The new fare sheets for SpiceJet, IndiGo and Jet Airways have been put up on their website effective May 21. National carrier Air India?s base fares on its website also show drop from the usual rates.
For a 30-day advance purchase, low cost carrier IndiGo and SpiceJet had base fares between R 1,200 and R1,400 for a Delhi-Mumbai flight. This, along with requisite taxes and aviation fuel surcharge, led to ticket prices of R5,000-R5,500.
However, with new fares, the base fare has been reduced to R920 each for Delhi-Mumbai flight booked 30 days in advance. Along with taxes and fuel surcharge the full fare turns out to be close to R4,500.
As a result, return fares for trunk routes like Delhi-Mumbai booked a month in advance have come down to R9,500 from R11,000-R12,000 previously.
?The magnitude of the cut in base fares is almost equal to what they are charging for additional services, so prima facie it meets the requirements that the DGCA and civil aviation ministry were looking for,? said a Mumbai-based travel agent.
After the aviation ministry allowed airlines to unbundle services like preferred seating, check-in baggage and five more services, airlines began charging for pre-booking of seats and reduced free baggage allowance to 15kgs.
SpiceJet, for example, offered additional baggage upto 20kgs, preferred seating, priority check-in and hot meals on their flight for an additional cost of R500.
The DGCA and civil aviation ministry had both asked airlines to drop base fares, which was the original intention behind allowing unbundling of services.
Last Friday, civil aviation secretary K N Srivastava also told airline companies to cut base fares and reduce the number of privileged seats for which they are charging.